page_title: Invasion of Naples (1806)
section_title: Anglo-Russian expeditions
hierarchical_section_title: Invasion of Naples (1806) / Background / Anglo-Russian expeditions
context_page_description: The Invasion of Naples in January 1806 saw a French army led by Marshal André Masséna march from northern Italy into the Kingdom of Naples which was ruled by King Ferdinand IV. The Neapolitan army was vanquished at Campo Tenese and rapidly disintegrated. The invasion was eventually successful despite some setbacks, including the prolonged Siege of Gaeta, the British victory at Maida, and a stubborn guerrilla war by the peasantry against the French. Total success eluded the French because Ferdinand withdrew to his domain in Sicily where he was protected by the Royal Navy and a British Army garrison. In 1806 Emperor Napoleon appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte to rule over southern Italy as king.
  The proximate cause of the invasion was Ferdinand's double-crossing of Napoleon. Wanting to keep things quiet in southern Italy, Napoleon and Ferdinand signed a convention that specified that the French would evacuate Apulia. In return, the Kingdom of Naples would stay neutral in the impending War of the Third Coalition. No sooner had the French occupying force marched away than Ferdinand admitted British and Russian armies into his kingdom.
context_section_description: Notified of the terms of the treaty and its ratification, Saint-Cyr immediately evacuated Apulia and his corps marched north to join Masséna's army in northern Italy. Almost at once, Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina reneged on the treaty and treacherously summoned two Coalition expeditionary forces to Naples. Lieutenant General James Henry Craig sailed from Malta with 7,500 British soldiers while General Maurice Lacy of Grodno (1740–1820) led 14,500 Russian troops aboard ship at Corfu. Another authority gave lower numbers, 6,000 in Craig's force and 7,350 in Lacy's corps. The British and Russians landed at Naples on 20 November 1805. By this time, Masséna was in pursuit of Archduke Charles' army. Since Saint-Cyr moved one-third of his command to help besiege the Austrian garrison of Venice, only 10,000 Franco-Italian troops observed the Neapolitan border.
  Buoyed by news of the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, Craig and Lacy readied their troops for a march into northern Italy. They were dumbfounded to discover that the poorly managed Neapolitan army was unable to support any offensive move. Without the help of a large body of allied soldiers, Craig and Lacy felt that they were only able to assume a defensive posture. They deployed their troops at the frontier with the British behind the Garigliano River, the Russians on their right in the Apennine Mountains, and a small Neapolitan force under General Roger de Damas on the Adriatic coast in the east. The Neapolitan kingdom called for conscription but military service was so unpopular that the army's size only increased by 6,000 men. The authorities even used the dubious expedient of pressing jailed convicts into the ranks. In the meantime, a reinforcement of 6,000 Russians landed.
  Napoleon's great victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805 brought about the end of the Third Coalition. Czar Alexander soon ordered Lacy to request an armistice and withdraw from Naples. When Craig was informed he decided that the prudent course was to withdraw the British contingent as well. These events threw the Neapolitan government into a state of panic because it knew the kingdom would soon face the French emperor alone. The king understood all too well that he had double-crossed Napoleon. At first Lacy was willing to interpret his instructions with some latitude. Yet when the Russian proposed to take up a defensive position in Calabria in the "toe" of Italy, he was rudely rebuffed by the royal court. Insulted, Lacy determined to carry out his czar's orders to leave Naples. Craig first offered to defend the fortress of Gaeta but its governor, Prince Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal refused his men entrance. The British general then suggested that he be allowed to land his troops at Messina. Not only did the Neapolitan government reject this proposal, it replied that if he landed his soldiers in Sicily they would be treated as enemies. Nevertheless, after Craig embarked his corps at Castellammare di Stabia on 19 January 1806 he sailed to Messina. There his men waited on their naval transports until the king and queen came to their senses and allowed them to land on 13 February.
caption: King Ferdinand double-crossed Napoleon
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